One thing I love about summer is spending time outside enjoying the beautiful Colorado weather. Needless to say, that usually doesn’t include spending time in a hot kitchen with the oven on. Fresh salads are a great way to avoid turning on that oven. However, they can get boring. Sometimes the thought of eating one more bite of lettuce makes me sick. The problem is that salads are a wonderful way of getting your multiple servings of fresh veggies in a day.

Instead of that boring lettuce, try using a gluten free pasta. Shop around to see which kind agrees with your tastes and texture preferences. I personally love quinoa pasta – its probably the closest to wheat pasta that I’ve found. Recently I created a Bruschetta recipe post. Bruschetta is simply an Italian style salsa, which incorporates fresh veggies, some herbs and garlic on top of a piece of toast. I figured that an interesting concept would be to make this Italian salsa into a pasta salad. So, while you will have to turn on your stove to make the pasta, this is a quick, light, wonderfully versatile dish that you can bring to picnics, potlucks, or any family get-togethers (or just enjoy on a hot summer day from the comfort of your own home).

The Messy Chef was created after an unhealthy lifestyle caused cancer for her husband and other health problems for her. Instead of getting depressed about having to change how she ate, she saw this as an opportunity and challenge to recreate their favorite “normal” dishes into healthy alternatives using fresh, whole ingredients. Her family and friends started asking for advice and recipes and The Messy Chef was born. It was created for all of the messy chefs out there who want to cook healthy but are afraid or just don’t know how. It’s for people who are sick of being sick. It’s for people who have been on diet after diet and continually fail. This way of cooking and eating isn’t a diet, it’s truly a lifestyle. Healthy is NOT low or no fat and tasteless. Healthy is delicious and Messy is the new black!

I made this meal a few days before I posted this, it's SUCH a delicious recipe! We added some cooked chicken, but honestly I think I like it better without the chicken!! :-) Such a great meal Sara! Thank you!!